Heroic Age

"If you had asked them, the Nexals, where they came from, they would have told you they came from another place, beyond our world. It was a horrible place of monsters and demons and endless killing and dying. They would have told you that their gods, perhaps tired of their endless wars, finally caused some great and terrible apocalypse, ending their world and scattering the people. Scattering them to other worlds, like ours. Places they could fight their battles again and again."
--Atél

"A long, long time ago a village stood in the north east of the Midlands. Its name was Durnion, and it had seen better days. Despite the sprawling buildings its population dwindled, and only a handful of people lived there. And one of them, who had been their leader, but was no more, was called Kralmir.
Kralmir rarely made much sense. He chose for an enemy in the tribe that lived by the marshes, the strongest in the world, and he plotted against them. He spread rumours that they wanted to conquer the world, and persuaded others to join him to bring down the tribe he claimed was too powerful. But he made a mistake.
The first of his allies was the Society of Helpful Individuals, who had no great quarrel with the people of Strongholm, but agreed that they probably were too powerful. But then Kralmir recruited a group of bandits called the Night Lords to his cause, and other lone theives. The so-called Night Lords had tried to destroy the village of Arboros so they could build their own village in the forest. But SHI were friends of Arboros.
SHI decided, for that and other reasons, that Kralmir could not be trusted. They decided to warn the people of Strongholm of the attack, in secret. A whisper in an ear, a copy of two letters from Kralmir, and it was done. The people on the marshes told their allies at Deadwood, and denounced Kralmir in front of all the people of Shintolin, both his plot and his less respectable 'free agents'. But SHI had other ways of dealing with it. They gathered in Durnion, attracting some notice as they did, but it was passed off as innocuous. It wasn't.
SHI tore every building in Durnion to the ground to pay for the crimes of Kralmir, who had been the leader but was no more. They tore down the longhouse he slept in, and he never emerged from the ruins. And, of course, history repeats itself."

The Nexals were forged in a crucible of war, but they were also great builders and explorers. When they arrived in our world, though some scholars think they were just an unknown tribe that had crossed the mountains, they became the greatest empire builders history has ever seen. They roamed the plains and crossed the peaks, mapping the world and exploring every nook and cranny. At the height of their power they controlled an eighth of the known world, built majestic cities everywhere they went, and readied themselves for the battles they so loved. They cut a bloody swath across the land, killing and driving off all those not like themselves.
--Atél

The Coming of the Great White Fog, oh Diary, consumed a great number of the population of Shintolin, especially the vulnerable Nexals who had been given little time to adapt to the ravages of this land. Quickly the world became a wild and untamed place, with ghost-settlements littering the countryside. This was the darkest moment in Shintolin's history, I believe. The soul of this world was consumed by the combination of mass violence and the horrid all-consuming fog, and only recently has it returned. I wept for its loss, and I weep still for those who will not return.
The animals bred like fire, oh Diary, reaching a population in the tens of thousands and seriously endangering themselves by spreading their food supply so thin. I began to permit mercy-hunting in Northcamp at this point, hoping to sacrifice a few animals so that they did not go extinct. I cannot fathom whether this policy accomplished what I'd hoped it would, but I do know the numbers have lowered and stabilized at a sustainable level. I have not re-banned hunting. I fear it would only make me unpopular, and would not be a policy welcomed by Northcamp's people.
--Alonai

A spectre is haunting Shintolin—the spectre of Nexal Horde. All the Powers of old Shintolin must enter into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Mayor and Bartender, Top Loony and King, Grokham City Commisioner and Draugr Jarl.

After the destruction of Laketown and Arboros the nexals raid Mansio! Their agressive behaviour shows that they surely will not stop there! We must stand against the southern barbaric tide wishing to destroy our homes and enslave us forcing into their feudal machine! Free People of the world UNITE!

First they'll come for carebears and you won't help cause you're not a carebear.
Then they'll come for the communists and you won't help cause you're not a commie.
After that they'll come for the hermits and you won't do anything cause you're not one.
In the end they'll come for YOU, but there will be no one left to help you!

The Free People do not form a separate party opposed or seperate from other groups/settlements.
They have no interests separate and apart from those of the Shintolin population as a whole.
They do not set up any sectarian principles of their own, by which to shape and mould the freedom movement.
The Free People are distinguished from the other parties by this only: 1. The KOS any Nexal/St. Germainer/ Cromal Hultian etc etc 2. In the various stages of development which the struggle of the people against the nexals has to pass through, they always and everywhere represent the interests of the movement as a whole (by killing Nexals and destroying their buildings, that is).

You do not need to join a specific settlement nor do you have to find and ask me to allow you to help in the cause (though a PM woud be neat). All you have to do is kill nexals and destroy their buildings on sight,
for the greater good of all people and civilisation! You might want to inform those dogs you kill, why you did it- the choice is yours to make. Just kill them and do it before they kill you!
--Jim Bim

Hello, people of Shintolin.

It seems that there are people (or, rather, one warmonger) agitating war against us.

We know we never were the most liked bunch. It is only natural to fear of what you cannot comprehed, and fear leads to aggression. (Also, it's natural to fear a enemy wich is about 10 times bigger than you.) Many, many people could not comprehend just what kind of world did we came from, and just what kind of people we are. Many tried to convince us to join their side, out of purely egoistical motives. They only saw warriors in us. That was not entirely true. Yes, we knew the art of battle better than just about everyone here, but we created, too. We built settlements, we created homes.
Then we got bored. It really seemed like one of the Good Elder Powers won the war, someone like Namm or Baraas, not Marquai. Just about any poissibility of violence was met with people having fits and heart attacks. We sealed ourselves off, but that did not produce the desired effect, nor, naturally, relieved the boredom. This world was stagnant as hell, as if frozen in time (Was Marquai making experiments? Did the creation of this universe didn't quite kick in yet? I don't know.). Absolute stagnation. That can be quite annoying.
Slowly, the world got larger. We expanded, claimed new lands, braved the wilderness. Still bored, though. Then, the blizzards hit. The absolute white... it claimed many a Nexal. It was obvious that the creation of this world was far from over. The very fabric of reality was unstable. Just about the only ones who were left alive were the warriors, and a few crafters. Not seeing anything else to do, as there was really nothing else to do - they set out to do what they did best - to fight the enemies of the Empire.
--Berserkas

The armies of the Nexals were frightening to behold. Equipped with spears and axes (they didn't like javelins for some reason), they had one secret weapon no other civilization had: organization. They would swoop down upon a village like a summer storm over the plains, striking without warning and leaving no survivors. Some among them claimed to wield magical powers against their foes, and other warriors were said to carry the weapons of the gods.
But you cannot grow so powerful, so vast, without making enemies. And the Nexals made enemies of all the peoples of that long ago time. And so it came to pass that a mighty army rose up against the Nexals and struck at the heart of their empire. The battle was long, and it was bloody, and there are many tales to tell of it, but in the end even the Nexals could not prevail against the whole world. For the truth was, they were a power in decline. Many of their number had gone, simply vanished, leaving only some few behind. The remnants of their empire clung to life for many years, but they never again could reach the dizzying height of their former glory.
--Atél